Liquid levels, such as a carpenter level, utilize the interplay between a surface of a liquid and gravity to measure whether a surface is level. The principles of a liquid level can be applied to detecting angular motion. Angle detection devices provide an output voltage proportional to tilt angle where tilting the sensor off level will cause an unbalanced electrical signal. Initial commercial electric liquid tilt sensors were electrolytic tilt sensors. These devices provided an output voltage proportional to tilt angle where tilting the sensor caused an unbalanced resistance to a common electrode. Liquid angle sensors using similar principles but with differential capacitive (as opposed to resistive) sensing have also gained popularity in use.
In current sensor designs, the signal conditioning electronics, and the sense elements, are typically located on two separate ceramic substrates. Due to this separation, interconnections between the signal conditioning electronics and the sense elements are cumbersome and unreliable. In addition, the requirements of the interconnections create numerous packaging constraints. The construction also suffers from poor temperature tracking between the electronics and the sense elements.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the long felt problems noted above.